OBJECTIVE To elucidate transport of intrafollicular proteins Inhibin A and pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) across the follicular fluid (FF)/blood barrier. DESIGN A retrospective study. SETTING IVF lab at a university hospital, academic, and industrial research labs. PATIENT(S) Fifty-five women undertook the IVF program. INTERVENTION(S) Follicular fluid aspirations and ana...

Four VD receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms (TaqI, ApaI, FokI and BsmI) have been reported to influence Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) risk. However, individual studies have produced inconsistent results. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of eleven case-control studies to better understand roles of the four polymorphisms in HT development. The results showed only FokI polymorphism was sign...

Before each saccade, neurons in frontal eye field anticipate the impending eye movement by showing sensitivity to stimuli appearing where the neuron's receptive field will be at the end of the saccade, referred to as the future field (FF) of the neuron. We explored the time course of this anticipatory activity in monkeys by briefly flashing stimuli in the FF at different times before saccades. ...

We examined the relationship between cotinine measures in follicular fluid (FF) and urine to inform our exposure assessment strategy for an ongoing epidemiological study of secondhand tobacco smoke (STS) exposure and early pregnancy loss. Among subjects undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), we compared cotinine levels in paired urine and FF samples from the same women and examined FF cotinin...

In recent years, the field of porous semiconductors has significantly diversified. Hinging on mostly untapped potential COFs, POPs and MOFs, a plethora suitable synthetic post strategies have been developed to tune optimize these materials, resulting in wide range possible applications. this Minireview, authors critically evaluate role dimensionality semiconductors, which not intensely investig...

An ultra-high sensitivity double-slot hybrid plasmonic (DSHP) ring resonator, used for optical sensors and modulators, is developed. Due to high index contrast, as well as plasmonic enhancement, a considerable part of the optical energy is concentrated in the narrow slots between Si and plasmonic materials (silver is used in this paper), which leads to high sensitivity to the infiltrating mater...

Landfilling has been the major method to dispose waste for the decades, thus there are thousands of landfills around the world. Landfills contain large amount of resources, which could be used as material or energy. There is an increasing interest for landfill mining which means excavation and processing of waste materials mined from landfills. While previous landfill composition studies have f...

BACKGROUND Inhaled corticosteroids are the recommended first-line treatment for asthma but adherence to therapy is suboptimal. The objectives of this study were to compare the efficacy and safety of once-daily (OD) evening and twice-daily (BD) regimens of the novel inhaled corticosteroid fluticasone furoate (FF) in asthma patients. METHODS Patients with moderate asthma (age ≥ 12 years; pre-br...

STUDY QUESTION What is the potential impact of follicular fluid (FF) from infertile women with mild endometriosis (ME) on oocyte quality, especially on nuclear maturation and the meiotic spindle? SUMMARY ANSWER FF from infertile women with ME may compromise nuclear maturation and the meiotic spindles of in vitro matured bovine oocytes. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Controversial studies have sugges...

Introduction: This study aimed to measure the neutron contamination of flattening filter (FF) and flattening filter-free (FFF) 10-MV photon beams delivered by the Elekta InfinityTM accelerator. Material and Methods: The photoneutron spectrum produced by the Linac head was evaluated using a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The geometry ...